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ACCEL-RX PORTFOLIO COMPANIES SECURE FOLLOW-ON FUNDING

KisoJi, SoundBite and Zucara Collectively Raise $40 Million CDN

VANCOUVER, July 3, 2018 — Accel-Rx, Canada’s national health sciences accelerator, announced today that three of its portfolio companies have recently secured a total of $40 million CDN in follow-on funding to advance the development and commercialization of their technologies.

KisoJi Biotechnology completed a significant Series A round to advance its program to create best-in-class drugs based on its novel nanobody platform. SoundBite Medical Solutions, named 2018 Company of the Year by Anges Québec, raised an important Series A financing to further develop its novel shockwave technology to treat coronary and peripheral arterial disease. Zucara Therapeutics, a diabetes life sciences company developing a once-daily therapeutic to prevent hypoglycemia, raised funds from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, among others.

The companies are among the up and coming start-ups in Accel-Rx’s portfolio. In the high-risk field of health sciences investing, Accel-Rx’s proprietary screening and investment model aims to ‘de-risk’ young companies that have better-than-average prospects for success. It provides funding and expertise to help them navigate the perilous journey from being a privately funded seed stage company to an investor-ready one that will attract public and venture capital.

“These three companies have overcome one of the greatest survival challenges facing early stage start-ups: securing follow-on funding that will allow them to grow further and commercialize,” said Accel-Rx President and CEO Natalie Dakers. “It is a testament to the promise of their technologies – and of the investor confidence they’ve built.”

She added, “Accel-Rx is one of the few organizations with a national mandate to help companies break through from seed stage to become ‘investor-ready’. Without this kind of support, there’s no telling how many medical breakthroughs are lost simply because a promising company didn’t have the resources to go on. It is critical that we continue to support these young companies, to ensure they have a place to grow and thrive here at home and to bolster Canada’s ability to succeed in highly competitive global health sciences markets.”

Since its inception in 2014, Accel-Rx has screened over 200 early-stage companies across Canada, selecting nine for investment. Accel-Rx’s rigorous diligence and expertise has attracted $38.25 million in co-investment, leveraging its initial investments by 8.5X. Further, the average seed round size for Accel-Rx portfolio companies is over $4.7 million, nearly double the average size of Canadian seed-stage financings in health sciences.

“We are proud of the fact that we have been able to build strong syndicates for our companies and increase the size of the seed round,” said Ms. Dakers. “It provides companies with a proper runway and higher level of focus on deliverables that will get them to the next real inflection point investors are looking for in a Series A raise.”

Accel-Rx support goes beyond funding. The company regularly holds top-tier investment forums and networking/educational events as well as CEO roundtables. In 2018 it launched the Accel-Rx Mentor Program (AMP), a national mentor program that matches a team of seasoned industry executives with early-stage startups. The initiatives are all part of the company’s Growth Platform, which adopts a customized approach for each portfolio company to ensure investor-readiness.

About Accel-Rx

Accel-Rx, Canada’s national health sciences accelerator, identifies and supports promising early-stage companies developing therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. In collaboration with founding partner BDC Capital, Accel-Rx provides seed capital and expertise to help fuel growth, creating a critical mass of investment-ready ventures equipped to become the next generation of anchor companies driving a globally competitive health sciences sector. Accel-Rx is a not-for-profit federal Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR). To learn more, visit us at www.accel-rx.com or follow us on Twitter at @Accel_Rx.

About KisoJi Biotechnology

KisoJi is a biotechnology company focused on creating best-in-class drugs based on its novel integrated nanobody drug discovery platform. Through this platform, KisoJi will create next generation antibodies that have unique anti-cancer mechanisms. Such therapeutic antibodies have the potential to treat a wide range of cancers. KisoJi is led by a successful and experienced senior management team with extensive drug discovery and clinical translation expertise.

About SoundBite Medical Solutions

SoundBite Medical Solutions Inc. is developing proprietary shockwave technology to address significant unmet clinical needs in interventional cardiology. Through an elegant combination of hardware, firmware and software, it can, in a very controllable manner, deliver high amplitude shock wave pulses through guidewires and other interventional tools, to specifically attack highly calcified and fibrotic tissue in the vascular system, while leaving healthy, elastic vessels walls largely unharmed. To find out more, visit soundbitemedical.com

About Zucara Therapeutics

Zucara Therapeutics is developing the first once-daily therapeutic to prevent hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in patients with diabetes. This pre-clinical technology has demonstrated potential to specifically block somatostatin type 2 receptors in the pancreas thereby preventing hypoglycemia and restoring natural glucose levels in the blood. Zucara’s method offers a clear advantage to patients as a preventative measure whereas current drug therapies can only rescue a patient already experiencing potentially dangerous low blood sugar. To find out more, visit www.zucara.ca.